~ Gathering the pieces of our lives together under the eyes of the Holy

Tag Archives: saints

I am getting ready to honor All Saints Day this coming week, and I usually begin with a litany of saints who have gone before me into the unseen vistas of eternity–family members, teachers. pastors, friends and soul mates, heroines and heroes. But this year I am aware of all the saints with whom I come in contact daily, weekly and episodically. My definition this year of a saint is someone who brings Light (to borrow from Leonard Cohen) though the cracks in everything, cracks of grief, abuse, venality, hopelessness. And there are many!

A few keep popping up:

the soloist who gave embodiment to the human grief as she sang “Lacrymosa” from a contemporary Requiem

the newly widowed faithful partners as they navigate their way into a new normal with gravity and grace

the caregivers who show up to comfort, clean up and be present to those whom they are called to love

the neighborhood conscience who keeps us from tripping on sidewalks and losing our mail

those who arrive on the doorstep with flowers or coffee bread or just a “hi” when days are bleak

the one who always at the drop of a hat says, “Come on in!”

the place holder in the pew where she as always sat for years, through pastoral changes, political wrangling and waning societal interest in “religion”

the poet who sees, then articulates, the beauty of the created world and calls us to celebrate

the persistent one who tenaciously refuses to collapse into despair, even with diminishing strength and agility

each one who stands up to bullying, whether it occurs around a dinner table, a private office, or a public arena

the writers for hope and justice–in blog, book and op-ed pieces, who keep calling me to Live Into Hope

the preacher who faithfully speaks the truth in love–transparently, courageously, in spite of slings and arrows of cranks and critics

the children who remain delighted with Halloween, bugs and dogs and soccer games, no matter the weather–political or meteorological

and, after Mr. Rogers, the helpers, the ones who see what needs doing and do it, after calamity, after tragedy, in ordinary time.

I am so grateful to be aware of the saints who course around me like a stream of mercy never ceasing, even as I am grateful for the saints who have gone on ahead–who saw in me things I could not see, then allowed me to become all I was meant to be. I am grateful for the saints who always allowed the Light in, no matter the cracks in everything that I could see, without “spiritual bypass,” without rigidity and judgmentalism, without giving up. I intend to be one too!